Chapter Seventeen
Troy
“This feels so good…mmm…do it harder!”
I watched as Eden moaned happily on the bed in her small trailer, and I dug my hands into her back and rolled them out again and again, moving further down her body as I massaged every inch of her. I’d learned to give proper massages from one of the sports massage therapists our team had back in the city, and after the last couple of weeks, Eden definitely needed one to relax. We’d been filming non-stop due to the great weather, and today was the first day anyone had been allowed a day off in what felt like forever.
We’d actually had a group date planned for today between me and the five women who were now left on the show, but it had been bucketing down with rain since six o’clock this morning, making it impossible to do anything. As a result, Glenn had reluctantly given everyone the day off. Ninety percent of the crew had taken off to the nearest town to do some much-needed unwinding at bars or cafés, and the contestants were holed up in the mansion to escape the rain (they weren’t allowed off the ranch like the crew). As for myself, I’d sneaked into Eden’s trailer for some quality time with her, seeing as there was hardly anyone around and we were very unlikely to get caught.
“Mm, you’re so good at this,” Eden repeated as my hands kneaded her muscles, and I surprised her by giving her a quick slap on the ass. “Hey! What was that for?” she asked in an indignant tone, propping herself up on her elbows.
“Couldn’t resist,” I said with a grin. “And I thought it was a nice way to end the massage.”
“You’re lucky you’re so sexy, or I might’ve been mad,” she replied, smiling back at me as she stretched out her limbs. “Thank you for massaging me, by the way. It was just what I needed.”
“No problem.”
“I’m pretty lucky, aren’t I?” she said. “Getting free massages from a hot NFL player.”
“And free sex, too.”
She laughed at that and playfully slapped my arm. “You’re so silly. But thanks again,” she said. “Also, I hate to sound all sappy, but I really wanted to thank you for something else.”
“I hate to use the same kind of joke twice in under a minute, but you really don’t need to thank me for the sex. I know it’s good, but really, no thanks necessary.”
“Oh, shut up, you dolt,” she said with a teasing grin. “Seriously, though, I wanted to thank you for not eliminating Blair yet. I know she can’t win the show—Glenn would have a fit, because she’s not one of his favorites for you to pick—but keeping her around for this long has been doing wonders for her business. I’ve checked her website a few times, and it looks like almost every piece of jewelry on it has sold out, so the viewers are obviously responding to her presence in a positive way.”
I smiled and ruffled her hair. “No worries. And I’m glad you two are on the way to fixing your friendship after what she did.”
“It’s in the past. She deserves a second chance.”
“Yeah, I agree. She was just a teenager back then, and she had her reasons,” I said with a nod. “You’re right about the other stuff, though. Glenn’s made it pretty damn clear that his favorites to win are either Cailin or Hayley. If I don’t pick one of them as the winner he might just murder me.”
“Which one are you going to pick?”
I shrugged. “No idea.”
Eden sighed and lay back down again. “I just keep thinking…oh, never mind.”
“No, what is it?” I asked, raising an inquisitive brow.
“I’m just worried about how long we’ll have to hide this,” she said quietly. “I know we said we’d start being a proper couple as soon as filming wraps, but for the last few seasons, the Stud and the winner have pretended to stay together for at least a few months afterwards to try and milk money from interviews and so on.”
I chuckled and fluffed up her hair again. “I don’t need more money, Eden. And whoever I pick to win…well, it doesn’t matter. All the women left on this show know it’s all fake, and my contract only says I have to pretend to date them until the end of filming. As soon as it’s over, the winner and I can just release a statement to the press saying that we’ve decided to go our separate ways, and then you and I are free to do whatever we want without anyone whining and bitching.”
“I just feel bad. Whoever you pick will probably be hoping to draw out her fame from the show as long as possible, and she might not be too happy about giving that up right away.”
I sighed. “True. I guess there’s no perfect solution either way. But I do know one thing.”
“What?”
“No matter what happens, I’m gonna be with you. You’re stuck with me now, woman!”
Eden laughed again, and she was about to reply when her two-way radio began to squawk. She stood up and held a finger up to her lips to make sure I stayed quiet, and then she answered. “What’s up?”
“Hey, Eden, it’s Candice. We have a bit of a problem.”
“What is it?”
There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the radio before Candice replied. “Remember how we thought our little Sabotage Queen had already been eliminated? Well, we were wrong. She’s still around, apparently.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. She’s gone and put hair removal cream in Emily’s deep conditioning hair mask. I’ve been dealing with her screaming for the last hour and threatening to leave the show. When the hair and makeup crew get back from whatever they’re doing in town today, they’re probably going to have to give her extensions to mask the bald spots.”
“God, that’s horrible,” Eden said, her eyebrows drawing together with concern.
“Yeah. This bitch likes to fuck with hair. First she bleached Blair’s hair and screwed that up, and now this. At least it wasn’t another life-threatening kinda thing, like the loosened saddle strap or the laxatives in the food.”
“True. But still a crappy situation. Poor Emily.”
“Yep. So we’ll need to keep a very careful eye on all the women from now on. There’s only five left, so it shouldn’t be too hard to make sure nothing else happens, but yeah…just thought I’d let you know that the bitch is still around.”
“Thanks, Candice,” Eden said before ending the conversation and turning the radio off with a sigh.
“Saboteur is back, huh?” I said.
“Yeah. Shit, Glenn is gonna be so pissed. I was meant to have figured out who she was and turfed her off the show weeks ago.”
“Not your fault. We all thought she was gone. And think about it—there’s only five women left now. It’ll be easy to figure out who it is, and when we do, I’ll cut her in the next elimination ceremony. So out of the ones left, who hasn’t been affected at all?”
Eden nodded slowly and sat down. “Okay, well, Blair and Emily have both been targeted by her, with the horrible hair stuff. And out of the other three, Hayley was one of the girls who got really sick from the laxatives in the food that time. So that leaves Anya and Cailin. Neither of them ate the poisoned hummus that night—maybe coincidence, but also maybe one of them knew not to touch it—and neither of them have been targeted in any other way.”
“Who would you suspect more out of those two?”
Eden gave me a wry smile. “Anya, obviously. She’s been number one on our list of suspects from the start.”
“Why?” I asked, furrowing my brows.
“Because she’s…well, I really hate to call another woman a bitch, but my god, she really is a bitch.”
“She’s actually not that bad,” I replied, shaking my head. “I spoke to her about it when the show first started. She said she knew she was going to get painted as an alpha bitch, so she decided to play it up for the cameras. She’s an actress trying to get attention, that’s all. She’s actually one of the coolest out of all the contestants; that’s why I haven’t eliminated her yet. Well, that and the fact that Glenn keeps telling me to keep her around. He thinks her bitchy antics bring in good ratings.”
Eden arched a brow. “Oh. Wow. I honestly thought she was just a really nasty person. She’s a damn good actress, then. But you know what, we did find hair bleach in her bathroom.”
“What? Really?”
“Yeah. Candice and I checked her room ages ago when we first suspected her. We found a little bottle of bleach, and we thought she could’ve used that to ruin Blair’s hair. But I spoke to hair and makeup afterwards to check if it was for something necessary, and they ended up telling me that they gave it to her because she had some hair she wanted to lighten on her lower abdomen and upper lip. That bleach was the only vague proof we had that it could be her, and she had a perfectly reasonable explanation for having it, so we couldn’t kick her off the show based on that alone.”
“Yeah, well, that’s probably a good thing, because I really don’t think it’s her. Like I said, she’s actually pretty cool. Cailin, though…I think it could be her.”
Eden’s eyes widened. “Really? Why? She’s so sweet. I mean, she does go on and on about her peanut allergy all the time, but aside from that, she’s fine.”
“You know what they say. Still waters run deep. She seems sweet and kinda shy, but who knows? It could all just be an act.”
“True. But you can’t eliminate her based on that alone, when she could be innocent. I really want to figure out exactly who it is.”
I slung an arm around her shoulder and gave her back a comforting rub. “I know. Lucky it’s a rainy day, because that means we have all day to brainstorm ideas of how to catch whoever it is. But first…”
I leaned over and planted a kiss on her mouth, and Eden melted into my arms, her lips responding hungrily as she returned my gesture with full force. She was wearing a strawberry-scented lip balm, and her sweet taste almost made me groan as I slid my hands into her hair, weaving them through it as I pulled her closer.
I was so deep in the kiss that I only vaguely registered the sound of someone turning a key in the locked trailer door, and I barely even heard the door opening. I did hear the quick footsteps of someone stepping inside, though, and Eden and I pulled away from each other as quick as we could. It was too late, though; we’d already been seen, and Eden was still shirtless from the massage I’d given her earlier.
Blair was standing in the doorway, staring at us with her mouth open.
“Oh.” That was all she said before turning and walking out.
Shit.